Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Grows Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 7.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 69,606 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $134,723,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CE. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Celanese during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Celanese by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 134,378 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $23,096,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 154.7% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 31,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,397,000 after purchasing an additional 19,075 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese by 316.2% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 7,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,303,000 after buying an additional 5,761 shares during the period. Finally, Zimmer Partners LP bought a new position in Celanese in the 1st quarter worth $5,671,000. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $74.70 on Monday. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $71.38 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business’s 50 day moving average is $116.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $130.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.52, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.31.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.50 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.75%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $120.59.

About Celanese

Celanese Corporation, a chemical and specialty materials company, manufactures and sells high performance engineered polymers in the United States and internationally. It operates through Engineered Materials and Acetyl Chain. The Engineered Materials segment develops, produces, and supplies specialty polymers for automotive and medical applications, as well as for use in industrial products and consumer electronics.